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in which Moodbidre lay, as also that the Guru-basadi, in which this set was installed, thereafter came to be known as the Siddhanta-basadi. The story how a complete paper-copy of the Dhavala, transcribed in the Nagari script, was, in the twenties of the present century, secretly smuggled out of the Siddhanta Basadi of Moodbidre and reached northern India, is quite interesting. From this copy, several other copies were soon made. It was with the help of these copies that the late Prof. Hiralal Jain of Amraoti prepared a standard edition of the Shatakhanda-agama alongwith its Dhavala commentray, with critical notes, Hindi translation, learned introductions, useful appendices, etc., which was published in sixteen volumes, between 1938 and 1959 A.D., by the Jain Sahityoddharaka Fund endowed by Seth Lakshmi Chand of Vidisha (M.P.).
This momentous publication aroused keen interest in many a Jaina and non-Jaina scholar who, as soon as the volumes began to apear one after the other, started delving into this ocean of Agamic knowledge. In fact, for a proper understanding of the Jaina doctrines prevailing prior to the schism of 79 A.D. which divided Mahavira's Order into the Digambara and Shvetambara sections, study of the Shatakhandagama is indispensable. It is equally valuable for a study of the early forms of the Prakrit language. Moreover, whereas the Shvetambara section claims to have preserved surviving portions and versions of the first eleven Angas as redacted by Devarddhi Gani in 466 A.D. and declares that the Twelfth Anga had already been entirely lost long before that time, the Digambaras disown the Shvetambara version of the Eleven Angas and claim to have scrupulously preserved specific portions of the Twelfth Anga, the Shatakhandagama being one of such portions that had been saved from oblivion. Thus, in a way, the two traditions would seem to complement each other. This fact also accounts for the agreement between the two sections on docrinal fundamentals and for the presence, in their respective canonical literatures, of many common gathas, which had been prevailing as common heritage before the schismatic division.
In the foregoing several decades much useful light has been thrown on various aspects of this Agama and its Dhavala commentary, in the learned introductions to the published editions and in the critical discussions of reputed scholars like Pt. Nathuram Premi, Pt. Jugal Kishore Mukhtar, Prof. Hiralal Jain, Dr. A. N. Upadhye, Prof. S.M. Katre, Pt. Kailash Chandra Shastri, Pt. Phool Chandra Shastri, Pt. S.C. Divakar, Dr. J. P. Jain, and several others. Yet, the need of a more comprehensive and exhaustive study in one volume was being felt, which has happily been fulfilled by Pandit Balchandraji Shastri.
Shastriji, having been closely associated with Dr. Hiralal Jain in the stupendous task of editing, translating and publishing this voluminous
20 Satkhandagam-parisheelan
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